Did Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff turn down a $270-million contract offer from Elon Musk in May 2025? No, that's not true: Even though posts promoting the rumor claimed that Goff rebuffed Musk at a high-profile, public charity event, we found no record of any such incident. Nor was there any evidence that Goff said to Musk "Keep it and spend it on something that actually helps people".
The rumor appeared in a May 31, 2025, post on Facebook (archived here), which read:
Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff shocked the world by rejecting a staggering $270 million offer from billionaire Elon Musk, delivered during a high-profile charity event. Jared Goff's bold response--"Keep it and spend it on something that actually helps people!"--left the audience speechless and ignited a firestorm of reactions online. What drove Jared Goff to turn down such a life-changing sum, and how will this defiant stance shape his legacy?
This is what it looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot)
A longer version of the story also appeared in a May 31 blog post, which claimed:
In a jaw-dropping moment that instantly became the talk of the sports and business worlds, Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff publicly turned down a staggering $270 million offer from tech mogul Elon Musk at a star-studded charity gala in Los Angeles. The offer, rumored to involve a high-tech partnership and long-term branding deal, was made live on stage in front of celebrities, journalists, and influencers.
But Goff's response was what truly shook the room:
"Keep it and spend it on something that actually helps people."
Those seven powerful words weren't just a rejection--they were a declaration. The crowd fell into stunned silence. Within minutes, social media erupted.
In reality, none of those things happened. There was no high-profile charity event, no public offer from Musk and no public rejection by Goff. If there had been, it would have formed the basis of widespread news coverage. And yet, a Google News search for the words "Jared Goff" and "Musk" yielded no relevant results.
Despite claims of a social media "eruption", we found no record of any chatter about anything described in the Facebook post or blog post, on X or Facebook. The story was a pure fabrication.
